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Online and mobile dating face privacy, safety concerns

New measure introduced Thursday requires companies -- not just dating websites or apps -- to get customers' permission before collecting location data off their mobile devices and sharing it with others.

As mobile dating proliferates, the focus no longer is just on daters leery of scams or sexual predators but also on keeping their location confidential.

Change may be coming to the rapidly growing dating industry as concern mounts about the privacy and safety of all online and mobile users.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., introduced legislation Thursday requiring companies to get customers' permission before collecting location data off their mobile devices and sharing it with others.

It's a move that would greatly affect dating websites and apps. As mobile dating proliferates, the focus no longer is just on daters leery of scams or sexual predators, but on keeping their locations confidential.

"This stuff is advancing at a faster and faster rate, and we've got to try and catch up," Franken says. "This is about Americans' right to privacy and one of the most private things is your location."

Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Texas have laws that require Internet dating sites to disclose whether they conduct criminal background checks on users and to offer advice on keeping safe.

"I see more regulation about companies stating what kind of information they actually use and more about their specific operation(s)," says analyst Jeremy Edwards, who authored a report on the industry last fall for IBISWorld, a Santa Monica, Calif.–based market research company. "I expect them to have to be more explicit in what they do with their data and what they require of users."

According to a Pew Research Center report in October, 11% of American adults — and 38% of those currently "single and looking" for a partner — say they've used online dating sites or mobile dating apps.

"We entrust some incredibly sensitive information to online dating sites," says Rainey Reitman of the San Francisco, Calif.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for user privacy amid technology development. "People don't realize how much information they're exposing even by doing something as slight as uploading a photograph."

He adds, "Many online apps are very cavalier about collecting that information and perhaps exposing it in a way that would make you uncomfortable."

Dating services eHarmony, Match.com and Spark Networks (JDate and ChristianMingle) signed an agreement in 2012 with the California attorney general's office to protect customers with online safety tools. These include companies checking subscribers against national sex offender registries and providing a rapid abuse reporting system for members.

However, cyberdating expert Julie Spira of Los Angeles says such reports are sometimes little more than revenge.

"When people get reported, sometimes it's because they got jilted," she says. "How do you quantify when someone feels rejected and pushes the report button, and when somebody really feels scared?"

Match.com, which has 1.9 million paid subscribers, has been screening all subscribers against sexual offender registries since the summer of 2011, according to spokesman Matthew Traub. Earlier that year, a woman sued the dating site saying she was assaulted by someone she met through it.

Edwards believes dating sites are doing what they can to help users be safe.

"It's difficult for these companies to do much else than provide information and tips," he says. "Meeting someone through one of these websites does not present any greater risk than meeting someone in a bar or any other setting. There's no real added risk because you don't know who anyone is when you meet them for the first time."